Sunday, December 14, 2008

A few of my favorite things: Twilight and planks

Hi! Exams are finally done and I am loving the free time and have been spending most of it losing myself in the Twilight series! I am currently finishing up book 2, New Moon. I haven't had this much book fun since I finished Harry Potter!

It has also been great having a social life back. I am going to be working a bit more over the break, but other than that the only things on the agenda are to relax, train, and take care of some wedding details like sending out the save the dates and picking out invitations. We are also planning on registering for wedding presents after Christmas. Fun! We realized last night that yesterday was the 6 month mark till the big day!

Onto workouts for the week:

The day after my enjoyable 3 mile run outside in the beautiful weather, I was still feeling ill, but I wanted to give 2 miles a shot. I decided to walk on the TM at a slight incline for 1 mile to warm up, and then felt ready for a slow 2 mile run. I made it through a miserable 1 mile before I had to stop! All in all, it was just a bad idea and I probably shouldn't have even tried. But I was glad I at least got some activity in.

I had no nausea on Thursday, just some headaches, so I tried out the 45 Minute Treadmill Workout. Phew! I did the running option and honestly didn't think I was going to finish at a couple points. I rarely incorporate hills into my running! I burned 531 cals and kept an average HR of 152. Not too bad! I will definitely be trying this workout again. My goal was not mileage for this workout, but I ended up running 3.75 miles *uphill*!

I definitely took Friday off to rest from that insane workout, although I wasn't particularly sore. Running really doesn't make me sore anymore. I guess that's a good thing because it means that I'm being consistant, but not increasing my mileage too quickly (which can lead to injury).

The fiance and I headed to the gym for our weekly long run (another 4 miles--next week will be 5). I kept the TM at a 1% incline (to mimic being outside with terrain, wind resistance, etc.). I really don't want to spoil myself on the TM, because I run on it so much. I just love being able to zone out and not have to worry about cars, stoplights, weather, or whatever else. Pointing a fan at my face and a TV in front of my eyes might be a reason, too:) We both shaved 30 seconds off of last week's 4 miler without even trying! We both finished in 38:30 (even though we started at different times and did different speed intervals. The same thing happened last week when we both finished in 39 minutes. Talk about being *N Sync!).

I plan on taking another day off today. I may do some ab work, though. Here is some inspiration: the plank--the all around best exercise for your core. So simple and can be done anywhere. Assume the position and hold for as long at you can! Repeat!